[Public Servants' Emotional Labor in the COVID Era] 40,000 Public Servants Suffer Verbal and Physical Abuse... Urgent Need for Staffing Increase and Legal Reform

<Ha> Civil Servants Are Also Human

Stress Increased After COVID-19
20 Police Officers Committed Suicide
Depression Treatment Increasing Annually
76,000 Psychological Counseling Cases in 3 Years

The emotional labor and resulting stress experienced by public officials have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is due to the surge in public-facing tasks related to COVID-19, such as disaster relief fund and national support fund applications, operation of screening clinics, and management of self-quarantined individuals, all concentrated at community centers and district offices.

The number of cases using the Mind Health Center, which serves as a psychological counseling center for public officials, reached 76,554 over the past three years. The Mind Companion Center, operated independently by the police, recorded 17,981 visits as of October this year. Cases of verbal abuse and physical assault against public officials are also increasing. According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, last year there were 46,079 cases of verbal and physical abuse against civil servants handling civil complaints in local governments, a 20% (8,025 cases) increase from the previous year (38,054 cases). The number of police officers suffering from depression rose from 777 in 2016 to 1,123 in 2020, an increase of 44.5% (346 officers) over five years, and about 20 police officers make extreme choices annually. The National Federation of Local Government Employees' Unions launched a campaign stating that "public officials should not only be forced to be courteous but also have the right to be protected."

Experts call for ▲improving awareness of mental counseling, ▲increasing personnel, and ▲revising laws and systems. Woonghyuk Lee, a professor in the Department of Police Science at Konkuk University, said, "Regular counseling is necessary, and strict confidentiality must be ensured so that there are no disadvantages in personnel matters." Ilsik Jang, a researcher at the Police University’s Institute of Security Policy, said, "It is urgent to establish a more robust ‘process’ to improve the quality of counseling and enable actual personnel and grievance resolutions through it." As of last year, the number of residents per public official varied significantly, with 108.4 residents per official in Jung-gu, Seoul, compared to 399.7 in Songpa-gu, a nearly fourfold difference. District office officials say, "Along with increasing personnel, disparities between districts must be reduced." In the case of the police, with the complete abolition of the conscripted police system scheduled for 2023, about 2,000 conscripted police officers are reassigned annually to riot squads and local police stations or COVID-19 residential treatment centers, causing manpower shortages in the field.

In the private sector, emotional laborers such as call center employees and service workers are protected under the Industrial Safety and Health Act, revised in 2018, which requires employers to take preventive measures against health hazards. Public officials, however, are excluded. Changho Kim, spokesperson for the National Public Officials Labor Union, said, "Public officials suffer significant emotional damage from ‘malicious civil complaints,’ but there are no legal measures," and emphasized, "Fundamental legislation to protect public officials is necessary." Although the Ministry of the Interior and Safety has installed CCTV and emergency bells in civil service offices, their effectiveness is limited. In the National Assembly, Democratic Party lawmakers Hyungseok Lee and Deukgu Kang have proposed amendments to the State Public Officials Act and Local Public Officials Act. Lawmaker Lee’s bill mandates appointing authorities to establish protective measures for public officials handling civil complaints and allows for temporary suspension of duties if necessary.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.